Mercenary by Michele Mannon
Deadliest Lies, #2
Contemporary Romance
Released: September 6, 2016
Swerve

Reviewed by Sheena

Sometimes in life, choices just aren’t part of the plan. When fate interferes and bulldozes right over you.

That’s how I felt the first time I saw him. Standing in my kitchen, soaking wet, hotter than a man has the right to be, and holding a knife.

Declan’s cold, stone-cold. I can’t help but want him. His presence stirs up some raw emotion within me. He seems so…alone. But is he here to kill me or save me?

He’s the one man I should never want…and the one I can never forget.

Mercenary is the second novel in the Deadliest Lies series.  Though it masquerades as a fast pace action erotic romance, the only thing that jives here is the eroticism.  And I’m guessing that is just because it would be pretty hard to mess that up.

Declan is beyond one dimensional and flat.  There was enough description that I buy that he was a gun for hire and a bad ass.  And well hung.  Madelyn is a twenty year old naive girl who find herself in grave danger. Why?

Beats the hell out of me.

Declan is the mercenary assigned to protect/stalk/kill her, once she finds herself in the cross-hairs of a very dangerous man.  Madelyn’s crime?

Beats me.  Something about her sister running afoul of said bad man.  Making Madelyn tempting bait that Declan can barely stand to keep his hands off of.

I threw in the towel when Madelyn noticed some random ass dude on her lawn and assumed he was a friend of her twin sisters and heck, why not invite his strange man in who you think *might* know your sister.  The same sister she describes as withdrawn, secretive and hard.  So on her twentieth birthday she decides to invite a hot stranger into her home to flirt.

Imbecile.  I loathe imbecile heroines. I can’t root for you and think for you at the same time!

I fiddle with the clean bowl, turning it upside down then upright on the dish rack.

Then tap my foot.  Thinking about all the reasons I shouldn’t….I don’t understand how he knows I’m here- a sixth sense or something- but this time, he turns.

His head lifts.  Our eyes connect.

The heavy, humid air inside the trailer thickens like fog.  Leaving me lightheaded.  Breathless.

His hood is now pulled up over his head, adding to the dangerous vibe that seems to seep from his pores….

“Are you here for Kylie?”

He shakes his head ever so slightly.

I race over to the door and, dismissing all thoughts of stranger danger, and then tug it open.

*Sigh* Madelyn is a nice girl.  High pretty, low on common sense.  And a penchant for making bone head mistakes when being street smart could be the only thing to keep her alive.  Or she can just ambulate through the story, from pillar to post having things happen to her, never really taking responsibility or charge of her own…anything.  More than once I was more than ready to get out of her head.  Declan may have been cardboard with a hand gun and magazine clip, but at least he did things to move the plot forward. You know like, kill folks and throw cock at Madelyn.

I could try to tell you about the plot. But I don’t have that kind of time.  It s convoluted and deceptively uninteresting.  On the surface, sure, there is intrigue, but once you start peeling back the layers (and layers) and more characters are introduced that do nothing, and more twists are introduced that bridge to nowhere…well after awhile, you are just hanging on to get to the next sex scene.  Which is the tell-tale blood red kiss of death.  Unless we are talking about an erotic serial with like 37 parts, you can not just trade on descriptive (though sexy!) sex.  Nope.  Not with this girl.  And trust me, I love my smut.

I tremble.  My thighs, my hands.  Overwhelmed by…him.

He bucks up and and I cry out with pleasure.  Better.  Better than this morning.

“Shhh.  Arch forward and lift your bottom up.”

I arch and lift and quiver at the drag of him inside my wet channel. Up and up I go until he says, “Jesus, enough.”  And without warning, he forces me back down.

Declan grunts.

“Lift,”he orders.  Bossy man.

The combination of his chest, his hands, his beautiful cock…it’s too much.

Sadly, that was all that was too much.  On the whole, Mercenary suffers from a whole lot of not enough.  I will not be continuing with this series.  I kind of want to leave a few dollars on the Kindle nightstand, sneak out the back and forget this whole thing ever happened.   If you like to keyword search “cum, cock, or slit” and only read just those parts- not much caring what happens in-between, then maybe this is for you.

Grade: D

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